Blogs from Mali, Africa - page 4

Festival in the Desert Highlights - 7th and 8th January 2011 7/1/2011 As I mentioned in an earlier blog - there was to be a wedding at the festival. David and Denise, who we were travelling with us, had decided to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows and the festival seemed to be the perfect place. Our travel group were all to be part of the wedding party and with Hamma's help we managed to get traditional clothing made for the wedding. We had several wedding planners involved in getting everything right - wedding photographer and video specialist, clothing, Tuareg traditions had to be learned and followed, etc. etc. Invitations were send out by word of mouth around the camp sites and at about 4pm the celebration began. David and Denise were dressed ... read more

FACES OF MALI...BAMAKO TO SEGOU The Malian people are handsome...the men are peacocks...and the women are too busy working... The peoples of the Bambara, Dogon, Bozo, Bobo, Felani, Songhai, Tuareg... handsome all. Welcome to the first instalment of "Faces of Mali". I will show photos of the stunning scenery, scenes, events, in my 'Images of Mali' blogs. Enjoy and regards, Dancing Dave (who danced his way through Mali culminating in his Tuareg wedding at Timbuktu!!!)... read more

Date: 30/1/2010 Evening: Begnimato We had agreed between us that we would like to start walking early in the morning and get to the lunch stop before it got too hot each day and then start again about 3pm each afternoon. So, today we started early and walked about 5km (in sand mostly) along the plain following the escarpment. Before leaving Ende, we had a long walk around the village as this was the village most famous for the mud painting - we watched several artists work on specific pieces. We also saw the women processing indigo dyed blankets and scarfs and one of our group was fortunate enough to purchase a copy of one of the masks worn during the dancing yesterday....it was a really good find as only one man in the village makes ... read more

Hi everyone, I think some people may have missed out on receiving one of the blogs I posted a couple of days ago - I posted 3 blogs just before leaving Addis Ababa - if you didn't receive all three, please just check out previous blogs to keep up to date. Many thanks, the cause might have been internet service. Having a beer in Bangkok at the moment and using free wifi (probably not really free if we have too many beers) - heading to the beach for a few days next week. Love to you all. Ros Niger River trip Day 2 - 3/1/2011 After rising at 5.30am (are we on holiday!!) we set off on the river again in time to catch the sunrise - magic. Today was a full day on the ... read more

Looking for a CD.... I was trying to track down a CD and this led to my wife, Denise & I heading off to "the end of the World" to the fabled city of Timbuktu. This is how it happened. In 2009 I was looking for African music for a photo-show of a previous trip to eastern Africa and found a track by Issa Bagayogo from Mali. In early 2010 after many failed attempts to find a CD by him in Sydney, I tried the internet and found it on a CD called "Tassoumakan". Scrolling through I looked at various Malian musicians and with the links became aware of The Festival au Desert at Essakane about 60kms from Timbuktu..held early January each year which suits my holidays...but how on earth could a couple of Aussies get ... read more